Interview Transcript
For my first interview I spoke with my mother, Laura Heiskell, who is an extremely
successful realtor. She was recently named, by business first, as one of the top 20 people
to know in real estate.
Me: What’s the biggest challenge you have ever faced in the work force?
Laura: Politics.
Me: Politics? In what way?
Laura: When I was working at intecon. When I was working at corporate America so to
speak. You know where it was a decent sized company and their was an infrastructure. I
was not good at that because I’m the kind of person that speaks my mind. I am usually
fairly tactful about it but I learned the hard way that a lot of these men that I was dealing
with, they did not like to be challenged and it made them extremely uncomfortable that I
was smarter than they were. It was threatening to them.
Me: Do you think that was because you are a woman?
Laura: I don’t think it was because I was a woman. However I do think that the gender
difference plays. Men and women in the work place can not have, well men and women
in general do not have the same kind of relationship with one another that you would
have with a guy friend or that I would have with a girlfriend. So when your dealing with
a boss that’s a guy and you’re a woman that plays in. It doesn’t play in like that when
your dealing with a woman boss.
Me: Like in the way that you talk to each other?
Laura: Yes and the way you interact and the way they view you, as a female. You have to
remember though that was twenty something years ago so it is somewhat different now. I
learned the hard way to bite my tongue and really only speak when I was asked a
question, don’t volunteer anything. Don’t complain just do your job. I hated it and it
really stared my soul. So they moved me out of my department because Greg something,
he was my boss and he was so annoying, he was such a schmoozer. I don’t like
schmoozer’s at all and I called him out on something one time and he didn’t like it so
they transferred me to another department. I ended up getting fired from there. Getting
fired was the best thing that ever happened to me.
Me: Why?
Laura: Because it really made me look at what I wanted out of life.
Me: Job wise?
Laura: Job wise and what did and didn’t make me happy. It let me know I really needed
to work for myself. So that was good to realize. My skill set was different and I really
wasn’t using it. I had always helped dad in the business since I was a kid.
Me: and you could speak your mind because it was your dad.
Laura: Yeah and I learned how to sell. It was better and dad really needed me and wanted
me, he wrote me this really long letter about how I needed to come work for him. So
that’s when I went to work for him. I could have found another sales job but I didn’t have
to. I didn’t really like West Sales Group.
Me: Why not?
Laura: I was calling on all men, most of them with a high school degree and I heard every
stupid dirty joke in the book more than once. I didn’t care about any of that stuff; I didn’t
care about HVAC stuff. It was boring. The only time I ever go a lot of satisfaction out of
it was when I landed a big deal and made a bunch of money but that didn’t happen a lot.
Me: Is that why you turned to real estate later in life?
Laura: Yes. I wanted to do something I love that I could make big deals in. I get a charge
from closing big deals.
For my second interview I spoke with my father, Dan Heiskell, who is a successful
businessman. Prior to owning his own business he sold copiers for a company called
icon. He was their salesman of the year on three occasions.
Me: What was your first real job after college?
Dan: Icon was the first career that I had.
Me: How did you end up there?
Dan: Well I was two years out of college and I was the manager of a racks, a fast food
chain in West Virginia, I was freshly married and wanted to start a career. I contacted a
few companies in different cities for an interview and was put in touch with the branch
manager in Louisville. The manager asked me I could come down for an interview and I
told him I would be there in the morning. I left for Louisville right after our phone call
and I had my interview the next morning.
Me: Why did you tell him you could be there the next morning? That couldn’t have been
easy to pull off.
Dan: Yeah it would have been easier to schedule it a few days later. I did it because it
showed that I wanted the job and that I was willing to do what needed to be done. I also
didn’t want the position to be filled.
Me: How did the interview go?
Dan: Well it went good obviously.
Me: Yeah but how did you convince them to hire someone with no experience?
Dan: I am convinced that getting there so quickly helped me secure the job. Also in the
interview he asked me why he should hire someone with no sales experience.
Me: How did you handle that?
Dan: I told him that I would be his hardest worker and that I am willing to learn. I pointed
out that since I would be on straight commission if I didn’t perform then he wouldn’t be
losing money.
Me: How did those first years go?
Dan: The first two years didn’t go great. I wasn’t making many sales and I was getting
pretty frustrated. I was selling enough to avoid being fired but I wasn’t taking off like I
thought I would.
Me: What did you need to change to be better?
Dan: I found that I was assuming to much when talking to clients and that I wasn’t asking
the right questions. Those two changes to my approach helped me become salesman of
the year not long after.
Me: How did you end up owning your own business?
Dan: Well I left icon after they continued to cut my sales territory.
Me: Why were they cutting it?
Dan: I was on straight commission and was making more than the vice presidents of the
company; they didn’t like that very much. So after I left I needed a job and I decided that
working for myself would be the best way to go.
Me: So what kind of advice would you give me when finding a career.
Dan: I think that you need to find something you are good at and try to make money
doing it. For me I’m good at selling so that’s what I have stuck with.